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December 16, 2013

ICGFM Winter Conference 2013

Posted by Carla Sateriale

The IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) hosted this year’s Winter Conference of the International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management (ICGFM) from December 9-11, 2013. Despite the snowfall in Washington, the attendees’ enthusiasm for PFM innovations, which was the theme of the conference, was not dampened. Dozens of officials and PFM professionals from various development organizations, governments and NGOs convened for discussions on a variety of topics related to PFM, from accrual accounting to climate change.

IMF Division Chief Richard Hughes’s opening remarks highlighted worldwide innovations in financial management, including the trend of independent fiscal councils being established, the increasing number of sovereign wealth funds around the world, and the growing adoption of accrual accounting. Major events during the conference included a presentation by Harvard’s Matt Andrews on the role of governance in development, Xavier Debrun’s exposition of FAD research of the efficacy of fiscal councils, and a discussion panel on PFM innovations headed by Richard Hughes and the World Bank’s William Dorotinsky.

The next ICGFM event will be its annual training course, from May 18-23, 2014 in Miami, Florida. The theme of it will be “Good Public Financial Management Practices in a Period of Global Adjustment.”

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